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Pulsating and daring in its theme, this book is an anthology of informative and thought provoking articles and poems from Muslim and Non Muslim women.

Entitled Behind The Hijab, the book attempts to unravel the complex politics of the headscarf post-September 11, as well as broaching some uncomfortable questions. Is the veil a symbol of liberation or suppression? Does it free women from sexual harassment and objectification or denigrate them to second-class citizens?

The writers Khan has gathered (all through contacts and word of mouth) span the generations from teenager to grandmother. The youngest contributors, aged 14, were pupils at the Central Foundation Girls’ School in Tower Hamlets, where Khan was writer in residence for two years.

“What struck me about other women was the honesty. Penny Wrout, for instance, a non-Muslim BBC journalist and feminist, admits that she assumed women who wear the burqa were brainwashed or oppressed until she went to Palestine and worked with Muslim schoolgirls in traditional dress who wanted to be teachers and doctors. That is the thought process others need to go through. To admit their prejudices and then question them.

“The burqa has been used as an instrument of power by some Muslim men to further their own gender, but you can find similar abuses of power in all cultures.